Chapter 57: Arachnid Hunt

"All under my watch, dear Heir." Cassandra’s warm voice echoed through his mind as a glittering whirlwind swept aside to reveal the Amazon woman, the sharp click of her block heeled boots ringing out across the sandy floor with each deliberate step.

One scorpion reached its target faster than the other two, lunging with its pincers outstretched in an attempt to trap him where he stood, the sheer speed of the strike catching even Cassandra’s usual calm off guard for the briefest moment.

Cassandra caught both pincers cleanly, without a flicker of hesitation. She let out a low grunt as she wrenched both limbs violently free, sending a grotesque spray of blood and viscera splattering across the sand.

The scorpion collapsed instantly with a heavy thud, its stinger twitching weakly against the ground, nothing more now than the mindless creature it had always been underneath its armored shell, dark blood already pooling beneath it and sinking into the sand. Cassandra pressed forward, springing past the two remaining scorpions with quick, purposeful strides. She slipped neatly past one shooting stinger before seizing it tightly in her grip and hauling it forward, the creature’s legs scrabbling uselessly against the sand as it was dragged off balance.

The force of her pull sent the scorpion lunging toward her with sudden, uncontrolled momentum. Cassandra swung it upward in one fluid motion before slamming it down hard over its companion with a sickening, cracking thud, shattering both carapaces at once as the sharp spikes of its own pincers punched clean through its body.

With that, Cassandra leapt high into a wide arc before landing heavily atop the two remaining, tangled scorpions, driving her full weight down until both were crushed flat beneath her.

Mark watched with an approving smile, studying her effortless kills with clear, impressed satisfaction before glancing around the surrounding chamber, which had fallen into an uneasy silence beneath the darkness still waiting somewhere ahead, the air thick with the coppery scent of the fight already behind them.

The Amazon turned toward him, stepping away from the heap of crushed scorpions at her feet, coming to a stop beside him like a dutiful warrior standing ready for further orders, her chest barely rising from the exertion despite the carnage she’d just left behind.

"Darkness always tends to welcome something bigger, and I do love something bigger," she said, eyes already fixed straight ahead toward the dark entrance looming in the distance.

Mark let out a light chuckle at the remark before nodding.

"Good, alright then. Let’s keep moving. No time to waste standing around here." He rolled his shoulders once, settling the weight of his bracers more comfortably before falling into step beside her.

He fell into step beside Cassandra, and together they pushed forward into the gloomy entrance, which swallowed them both whole the moment they crossed its threshold.

When they emerged on the other side, they found themselves standing before a wide, sweeping pathway, its rough walls curving upward toward a high, distant ceiling.

The same sandy floor stretched onward throughout the chamber, but what immediately caught Mark’s attention was the sheer number of arachnid scorpions scattered across the open space ahead, far more than either of them had faced in the chamber behind them.

These particular scorpions dwarfed the ones before them, their carapaces gleaming with a dark, almost midnight blue sheen, each stinger tipped in vivid red, practically promising a considerably more potent dose of venom, the kind that would drop a fully grown man in seconds rather than minutes.

Their many red eyes locked onto both intruders in eerie, perfect unison, spiked pincers clicking sharply together with unmistakable killing intent. A handful more surged up from beneath the sand as they watched, swelling their already considerable numbers further, the chamber floor rippling faintly wherever another pair of eyes broke the surface.

Mark stayed quiet for a moment before letting out a resigned sigh.

"Of course, another endless army. Fine then. Let’s do this."

With that, he activated Echo, sharp bracers materializing instantly across his forearms, followed by a gleaming pauldron settling over his right shoulder and greaves wrapping snugly around his shins, the familiar weight of it all settling into place like a second skin. His eyes flared as he activated Symbiosis next, drawing on half his summon’s considerable strength.

A small smile tugged at Cassandra’s lips as she summoned her signature warhammer, its heavy bronze surface catching what little light filtered through the chamber. But she didn’t stop there.

Without waiting for Mark’s command, she shifted into Super Mode.

Her height surged upward to twelve feet, growing into a stature properly suited to wielding a weapon of that scale, the sand beneath her feet compacting hard under the sudden shift in her weight. Lightning crackled visibly across her frame as she surged forward, swinging her warhammer through a brutal, sweeping arc.

Most of the scorpions scrambled to escape in time, but those caught within the impact radius were obliterated instantly beneath the sheer, devastating force of a weapon that had already served her faithfully across countless ages of battle.

Mark moved with quick, precise footwork as two stingers shot toward him at once. He dodged the first cleanly while deflecting the second off his bracer with a dull, ringing clang.

In the same motion, he leapt upward, landing squarely atop one of the scorpions before pushing off and clearing the striking range of another, whose stinger instead plunged straight into one of its own kind by mistake.

As he moved, he could feel the surrounding air shudder violently in the wake of Cassandra’s vicious swing. Another powerful strike sent a rolling gale tearing through the chamber, sweeping several nearby scorpions clean off their feet and hurling them hard into the surrounding walls, their armored bodies cracking audibly against the stone on impact.

Mark leapt high, coming down with tremendous force directly onto the cracking skull of one scorpion before pivoting toward the next, weaving carefully around those still pursuing him.

Sand kicked up in loose sprays with every landing, clinging to his sneakers and the hem of his hoodie. Along the way, he redirected one scorpion’s own stinger into a nearby companion before driving a hard kick into another, sending it skidding backward just in time to avoid its own retaliating stinger.

His instincts flared sharply, and he threw himself clear on pure reflex.

A moment later, another scorpion burst upward from beneath the sandy floor exactly where he’d been standing.

That was when the full picture finally clicked into place for Mark. This chamber belonged entirely to them. These creatures had adapted completely to their environment, using the shifting sand itself as both cover and weapon, striking from below where no ordinary opponent would think to watch.

Which put him, undeniably, at a real disadvantage here.

Still, he intended to make full use of it anyway, determined to prove an outsider could dominate even a creature’s own home ground if they fought smart enough.

Four more scorpions came scuttling toward him, pincers clicking, stingers raised and ready.

But then a sudden gust of wind scattered them aside as Cassandra’s warhammer came crashing down like a falling meteor, smearing all four across the ground in a single devastating blow. This particular weapon had been blessed and forged by a blacksmith god himself, and its raw hardness and durability were nothing to take lightly, not even for a moment.

She drew the weapon back, its surface now slick with gore and blood, glancing briefly down at the scattered wreckage before lifting her gaze toward the next entrance, visible not far ahead, faint light spilling weakly from somewhere deeper within it.

Mark deflected the stinger of a lunging scorpion against his bracer, the strike coming fast enough to graze his skin, close enough that he nearly caught a dose of its venom in the process, a thin line of blood welling up along his forearm where the tip had barely broken skin. He leapt back quickly before turning sharply toward the entrance ahead.

"We move, now!" he called out, already breaking into a run toward it.

This particular stretch of the dungeon had proven considerably more dangerous than expected, thanks entirely to the hidden sand traps letting enemies ambush them from below at any moment. Better, he decided, to push toward the next section entirely rather than keep courting unnecessary risk here, especially with no way of telling how many more of the creatures still lay buried beneath the surface.

"Yeah, figured as much myself already," the Amazon replied, falling into step as they turned to leave the chamber behind.

Mark and Cassandra moved forward together, though she easily outpaced him along the way, reaching and slipping into the next chamber several steps ahead of him.

But the moment Mark crossed the threshold behind her, he stopped dead in his tracks.

His eyes went wide at the sight waiting for him inside, whatever words he’d been about to say dying instantly in his throat.